The Art of Love
by Elle Mira
Summary: On the day of Ephram's first art class in Everwood, they told him that a picture was worth a thousand words. Futurefic.


On the day of Ephram's first art class in Everwood, they told him that a picture was worth a thousand words. In order to further prove that statement, he was assigned to make a drawing to portray a relationship that he had with someone. It wasn't allowed to have any words on it; he was expected to represent his feelings for the person just by the expressions or symbols that he drew.

At first he thought the assignment vague. There were other details about it, of course; it was supposed to be drawn on a large poster board, uncolored, and shaded, but other than that the actual task was quite broad. After receiving the duty, he thought that it was going to be hard to complete and he was unwilling to open up and be creative. However, on his bike ride home, he realized that the lack of boundaries might be a good thing.

He'd only had one person on his mind all day: Amy Abbott. He had a few other electives before his first day of art, so he knew her fairly well by now and knew all about her boyfriend as well. In the empty house he sat at the kitchen table with a blank white poster in front of him and drew her from memory. Surprisingly, it turned out rather good. _Very _good. And then he added himself standing behind her in awe, watching her while she looked off into another direction distractedly.

In the end, he didn't hand the drawing in. Instead he drew a picture of him and his father that was hardly as good, and received a B. He put the poster under his bed and kept it there. As time passed, he made it more complex, adding the scenic Colorado mountains as a background.

When Colin came back, drastic changes to the drawing were made. He had once thought Amy a fragile and delicate flower, mourning for the loss of her boyfriend, but now he knew otherwise. He changed her appearance from being injured and longing to simply desiring and wanting things her way. He changed his countenance, as well, from wonderment and astonishment to hurt as he looked after Amy. And most importantly, he added Colin in as well, whose eyes were scared and unsure, although firm Amy, who stood before the once-comatose boy, did not see it. 

By the time he had finished his sophomore year, the picture was colored in pastels. 

He kept it there, under his bed, but forgot about it eventually. When his junior year rolled along, he had other things on his mind.

Colin, fully healed from the accident that had taken place two years before, looked to become Ephram's friend. Ephram didn't resist, and Bright's jealousy eventually roped him into reluctantly befriending Ephram as well. There was always a space between the two of them because of the rough start they had gotten off to, but they worked to forget it.

Ephram, Colin, and Bright became inseparable. They would sit at Mama Joy's talking about how little sisters sucked or how Everwood was too small or how Nina was falling for Andy, which was a subject Ephram wasn't particularly fond of, it being about his father's love life and all. The three of them would do everything together, with Amy happily watching her friend, boyfriend, and brother from the sidelines.

Delia was turning into a pre-teen, and she was regarded by the group with fondness, and everyone treated her like she was ten years younger every time she accompanied them to the movies or out to dinner. Amy was her idol, Bright was her crush, Colin was her friend, and Ephram was her comfort. They did manage to have twice as good of a time when she was around, and once she suggested that it was because the first letters of their names made up the first five letters of the alphabet. When Ephram laughingly indicated that maybe it was in order from dumbest to smartest, Amy slapped him playfully.

Colin and Amy did experience one breakup that shocked the small community. After all, this was the girl who had given up everything for him. Whispers followed her as she walked around town, and the school's latest gossip was constantly on updates about the Colin-Amy situation. Their separation lasted about a month, and then eventually they reunited.

But when Colin and Bright graduated, everything changed. Amy was suddenly the innocent, hurting, delicate flower Ephram met when he was fifteen. Once again she was yearning for Colin, who now resided with Bright in college in the Southeast, so far away.

Once, when Amy had been at Ephram's house studying for SATs he'd gone downstairs to fetch his laptop and left her in his room sitting on his bed. There, she noticed the corner of a white poster sticking out from beneath it and she curiously pulled it out to find the drawing he'd done years before. Tears filled her eyes as she studied the etching of her smiling at Colin, who, although inches away from her, was looking off into the distance. Ephram was watching her from behind, his face looking hurt, yet controlled.

When she heard him thundering up the stairs she hastily put the drawing back under his bed. Hidden, yet there.

As their senior year drew to a close, their futures were decided. Ephram would go back to his hometown, back to New York where he would become a famous pianist. He had even already spoken with some people from a record label. Amy would follow him, coincidentally, by studying ballet in the same city.

One day, Ephram was on a long-distance phone call to his friends on the other side of the continent. "Yeah, I mean . . . at least I'll be kind of near you guys."

"Bright, give me the phone. I want to talk to him." Ephram listened to the sounds of Bright and Colin struggling with the receiver until he heard a voice say, "Yeah, so, Ephram. I need to tell you something important. Bright, I mean it, man!" Colin suddenly shouted. Ephram sensed that Bright had backed off when Colin continued, "I need you to take care of Amy, all right? I mean it. We . . . we got in a fight last week and . . . I-I don't know where we stand now. But, Ephram, Amy's a small-town girl, you know? She . . . she won't be used to New York."

Ephram loaded a few shirts into his suitcase. "I got it, dude. Me and her'll be living in different parts of the city, but don't worry about it. I'll keep an eye out for her."

"You always have, man."

"Ephram?" He looked up at his stepmother, Nina, who stood in the doorway. "Not too long on the long-distance calls, okay?"

"Sure. I'm finishing up, anyway."

"Oh, and Amy's here." She moved out of the doorway to reveal that she had been blocking Amy's form.

He paused, staring at the girl who stood at his door, and then said, "I'll call you back, Colin. A-and Bright, too. See you guys later." 

Nina walked off and Amy entered cautiously. The young man only said, "I'm warning you: it looks like a tornado hit in here. I'm packing."

"Oh, it's okay, I mean, my room's totally a mess too," she replied. She walked in with more confidence and stood in front of him. 

He continued to pack, tossing a few more things into the suitcase as Amy spoke. "It's going to be hard to leave, isn't it?" She tucked her golden hair behind her ears and inhaled slowly. "My parents are going nuts."

"I know. My dad, Delia, Nina, and Sam . . . I don't want to leave them."

"You won't be leaving them forever. We can come back and visit."

"That's what everyone keeps saying."

They were silent for a while; Ephram proceeded to load his belongings into his suitcase and Amy only watched him quietly. He wanted to ask her how things were with her and Colin, half-knowing the answer from what the boy had told him, but he thought it would be rude. Then she said, "You know what else you should take with you?" She knelt down and looked under his bed. Ephram, puzzled, watched her with a raised eyebrow. She pulled out the dusty ancient poster he had forgotten years ago and handed it to him.

He smiled and sat next to her on his bed, laughing, "I remember this!" 

Both of them studied the professional drawing and Amy complimented, "It's perfect. Not . . . just the way it looks like us, but the facial expressions . . . it's like I can feel the tension."

Ephram chuckled and nodded. "I'll definitely bring it with me to New York. It's an accurate portrayal of the everlasting love triangle." His pallid cheeks flushed as he said the last few words.

Amy reddened as well. She and Ephram had shared many short, sweet kisses over the years--six, all together--and luckily it did nothing to infringe upon the relationship with Colin of either. Colin probably knew, deep down, but he'd done nothing to stop it.

The golden-haired girl shook her head, saying, "Now that we're all going to college, I feel like it's the end of the love triangle. Like we're putting a period on the end of a very long sentence."

He didn't know what it all meant, if he would be with Amy or if Colin would, but he simply laced his fingers with hers and told her, smiling, "Not a period . . . maybe we should call it a semi-colon."

--Fin--

[A/N: There it is, my first futurefic. Thanks for reading. Review. I'll have some other stuff up soon.]  



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